Pyrazinetetracarboxamide: A Duplex Ligand for Palladium(II).

Tetraethylpyrazine-2,3,5,6-tetracarboxamide forms a dipalladium(II) complex with acetates occupying the fourth coordination sites of the two bound metal ions. Crystallographic results indicate that the "duplex" dipincer has captured two protons that serve as the counterions. The protons lie between adjacent amide carbonyl groups with very short O···O distances of 2.435(5) Å. In the free base, the adjacent carbonyl groups are farther apart, averaging 3.196(3) Å. While the dipalladium(II) complexes stack in an ordered stepwise fashion along the a axis, the free base molecules stack on top of each other, with each pincer rotated by about 60° from the one below.